DEAR EDITOR:

It’s 2021, and the prehistoric minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Can you even imagine that in today’s America, land of the multi-million and billionaires? The Biden administration wants to raise it to $15 per hour. Whether you are for or against it, workers definitely need it.

Here’s why. Let’s do some steppingstones to the $15 per hour:

l A $7.25 hourly wage at 40 hours a week equals $15,080 per year. But most of these jobs are part-time with no benefits.

l A $10 hourly wage at 40 hours a week equals $20,800 per year.

l A $12 hourly wage at 40 hours a week equals $24,960 year.

l A $15 hourly wage at 40 hours a week equals $31,200 year.

These are the steppingstones that poor, young, low-skilled and middle-age, less-educated working people are looking at in 2021 if they don’t get the $15 per hour minimum wage. I remember when Bernie Sanders was campaigning for president. He wanted an educated, healthy, working society for Americans, and he lost. Can you imagine that?

The U.S. Census goes by household incomes, not individual incomes. How many people do you have working in a household to stay above the poverty level?

What happens when some people leave the household for one reason or another, divorce, death, etc.? It’s called: we come to your house to collect or disconnect your utilities, car, eviction, etc. All states, prosperous or not, need workers to make $15 per hour as a minimum wage.

Eating and paying bills are habit forming. President Biden is for higher income-tax credits that would boost low incomes. What America needs is a safe, progressive and United States of America. Good luck.

DAVID P. GAIBIS SR.

Edinburg, Pa.